Thousands of public defenders prepare to strike
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The Legal Aid Society’s union said 91 percent of their 1,100 attorneys approved a strike authorization vote, the first in 30 years that could disrupt the city’s court system.Eagle file photo by Noah Powelson
By Noah Powelson
Attorneys working at the city’s largest public defender group are prepared to begin the largest public defender strike in 30 years if the organization they work for doesn’t increase their pay and meet other demands for a new labor contract.
On Monday, attorneys at the Legal Aid Society voted to give their union the authority to start a strike at any time should they not reach a new contract agreement with the major legal services firm. According to the union, 99 percent of their members participated in the strike authorization vote, with 91 percent voting in favor of a strike.
Contract negotiations between the union and the Legal Aid Society continued throughout Monday. The current labor agreement was set to expire at midnight, after the publication of this paper.
A strike from the public defense attorneys would mark the first time attorneys for LAS, the largest public attorney organization in the city, have gone on strike since 1994. The union’s just under 1,100 members make up approximately half of public defenders in each of the five boroughs, according to the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys union chapter chair for the LAS, Jane Fox.
“We are hoping that the city and the mayor hear our message,” Fox told the Eagle in a phone interview. “Ninety-one percent have told us we are ready, willing and able to go on strike if it comes time to.”
Twyla Carter, the attorney-in-chief and chief executive officer of The Legal Aid Society, said in a statement that the organization had made a good-faith effort to boost pay for the attorneys and fight for more city funding over the years. In recent weeks, the organization offered attorneys a baseline salary increase equivalent to an additional 4 percent boost with targeted salary increases at key points along the salary scale.
Since Carter took the helm of the LAS in August 2022, unionized attorneys “have received or been offered baseline salary increases equivalent to 17 percent, a 7 percent retention bonus, and a $6,500 retention bonus, which is more than they have received in over a decade,” Carter said in a statement.
“Legal Aid now offers the highest starting salary for attorneys among all not-for-profit legal services organizations in New York City,” she added.
But union representatives and members said that current contract offers have not been sufficient, and that current cost of living adjustments offered would still result in a decrease in spending power for members as cost of living and inflation rises. Union representatives also said a pay increase is needed to keep attrition rates down, as public defenders struggle to stay competitive with private practices that offer significantly more pay.
“The funding levels are not really reflecting [their commitment],” Gregroy Herrera, a spokesperson for the LAS union, told the Eagle. “We want to be able to do this work long term…but for a lot of people it’s simply not sustainable, especially for people who want to start families or are struggling with student debts.”
A strike from LAS attorneys threatens significant disruptions across all city courthouses, and union representatives said it could grind the courts to a halt in some areas. But LAS’ vote was not the first or the last announced over the last few days.
LAS is one of the two dozen public defender organizations represented by the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys. As of this paper’s publication, at least six public defender organizations unionized by ALAA – including LAS – announced their members had voted to authorize a strike as all their contracts are set to expire simultaneously on June 30. All organizations that voted received approval from more than 80 percent of their members.
The coordination of the union shops is the result of years of work unionizing organizations that at one point were created to prevent a public defender strike from disrupting the city’s legal system.
In 1994, when 1,100 LAS attorneys walked off the job, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani terminated the city’s contract with the LAS and asked other legal services providers to apply for the contract. A number of new public defender organizations were created in response to Giuliani’s request, and the LAS union struggled to maintain their bargaining power as new public defender organizations, none of which had unionized employees, filled the need.
Thirty years later, those same public defender organizations unionized under ALAA. The ALAA encouraged their chapters in recent years to negotiate labor agreements that expire at the same time on June 30, 2025 as a way to boost their negotiating power, and now LAS attorneys have the backing of many of the organizations originally created to replace them.
Union members of the New York Legal Assistance Group gave strike authorization with 88 percent of members voting in approval.Eagle file photo by Noah Powelson
Following the momentum of the Monday morning strike vote announcement, LAS attorneys and staff spent their lunch break on a picket line outside their office in lower Manhattan. With roughly 170 LAS union members holding signs and chanting in the 90-degree weather, rallying members seemed enthused and motivated for how the union’s efforts have gone.
“If you’ve been at Legal Aid as long as I have, or longer, you know that the organization has failed us for decades in really getting us meaningful salary increases that have never kept up with inflation,” Atusa Mozaffari, a housing tenant defense attorney at the LAS’ Queens office and member of the union’s bargaining committee, told the Eagle. “We lose people because they can’t afford to stay in the job that they love when they are being priced out of the single most expensive in the United States.”
Just around the block, attorneys with the New York Legal Assistance Group were holding their own rally and said they had not yet received a contract offer meeting their chief demands. ALAA’s NYLAG chapter, who announced 88 percent of their union members voted to authorize a strike, were demanding increased cost of living adjustment, a $70k wage floor for all staff, more affordable health insurance, and other demands.
During the rally, members of the bargaining committee said management had made an offer that did not include any of their demands.
“If management comes back in the afternoon with something like they gave in the morning, it’s going to be hard to avoid a strike,” John Bash, the vice president of communications for NYLAG’s union, told the Eagle. “It’s not anywhere where we need to be, and we’ve made it clear this is what our workers want.”
As of publishing time, bargaining committees for the unions were amid all-day negotiations. If a deal is not struck, and ALAA organizations continue to pass vote authorizations for a strike, the city could see a repeat of the 1994 public defender walk-out in the days or weeks to come.
In a statement to the Eagle, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice touted Mayor Eric Adams’ investments into legal services with his most recent executive budget.
“The city already funds their cost-of-living adjustments, which support wage increases consistent with the citywide collective bargaining pattern,” a spokesperson with MOCJ told the Eagle. “The Adams administration has also added $20 million to help legal service providers hire more staff to address increased caseloads and adjust salaries. To minimize disruption to the justice system, we continue to work with our other legal defense partners to prepare for any potential challenges and impact of a strike.”
The looming strike threatens to massively disrupt the city’s court system, increasing the chances for more delayed hearings, dismissed cases and inflating the case backlog. State court leadership said they were committed to keeping the courts running.
“The UCS is aware of the situation and has been in touch with the City and the Legal Aid Society, in the hope that the work of our courts will not be disrupted, and that if there is any disruption, it will not prejudice the rights of the parties,” Al Baker, a spokesperson for OCA, told the Eagle in a statement. “The courts will, of course, remain fully open.”
